one of them belonged to steve buccer, who dashed into the basement just as the storm hit. >> in the next minute and a half we're either going to be in heaven or we're going to be in the hospital or we're going to walk out of here. completely in the lord's hands which of those three things were going to happen. >> let's go straight to cnn's brooke baldwin, who is on the scene there in washington. i know you have seen this kind of thing before. how does this compare? >> reporter: it's tough to really compare any kind of disaster like this, jim. you know that. you've covered things like this. but it's almost like you sit there and you watch it on television, but to stand here in front of just utter devastation, it takes your breath away. and in talking to multiple families, all of whom survived this ef-4 tornado here in washington, illinois, they are certainly breathing a sigh of relief tonight but i have to be honest, they admitted to me they are still numb. but when you look at the number of fatalities here in this town of about 15,000, i'm talking one death, they all know this could have